Viikko Kuusitoista

maanatai:
Today was the first and last day of school this week... sorta (I had a test wednesday, but that's nothing) But it was my first time using my new and totally awesome bus card! It is sooo cool, unfortuantly I had no clue how to use it, so when the bus came, Roosa got on (she has a different type of card, where you just show the bus driver) Then I got on and I thought I knew how to use it, there's this circle thing that I thought was a dictector decives that you just tap the card on it, and it reads it. So after 5 seconds (or more) of me smacking my card on what turned out to be something that opens the door to the bus. I handed my card over to the bus driver defeatedly, and she took it out of it's case... and stuck it into the machine, and gave it back... Okay i felt dumb but just got over it and found Roosa in the back of the bus and sat down. The bus was pretty full. I was surprised! After school was a similar story with the bus card. Except I did take it out of it's case this time, and found the right machine to put it in. But I just put it in and right back out like the hotel doors and keys... it turns out that's not right either. I started walking to the back of the bus and the bus driver yelled 'wait' than took my card and put it in the machine, then waited, the card poped itself out and he gave it back to me. So same as last time, I just took it and went to find Roosa.

tiistai:
Woke up late today, cause (no school) the whole day I worked on my Rotary presentation. (Markku had asked me at the last Rotary meeting to work on a presentations of the differences between America and Finland) So I left it to the day of to work on it (of course) and yeah... So I actually really liked how it turned out! It was long enough (10-15mins) and they said they could understand everything that I said SCORE. Some of the things that they thought were the weirdest were:

• When you are learning to drive in America, anyone over 21 that has a license can be teaching you, and you aren't required to have a second brake in the passenger seat. (Here if even your own parent wants to teach you how to drive they have to go take a really hard test on all the rules of the road, then install a second brake in the passenger seat) That's why most people go to car school to learn how to drive.
• I calculated the price of gas here and there and they thought that was crazy! here it is 1.43€ a liter, and we pay 80 cents for the liter (and I didn't even calculate in the exchange rate) So they just laughed at that.
• And they don't really have caffine free coffee here, actually they might, it's just allusive, cause I haven't seen it yet.

Then after the meeting I was getting a ride home from a rotarian who lives near my new house, but he had a meeting for a little while, so I talked to this man who used to live in Hämeenkyrö, and was in this Rotary club, but moved to the West coast. He told me how a lot of the people in his new town, don't speack finnish, they speak swedish, but it's Finnish swedish, so if they were to go to Sweden and talk, the Swedish swedish speakers probably would have a very hard time understanding them! WOW I think that's crazy!!!

keskiviikko:
Today was an extremly WINDY day!!! I can't remember the last time I heard wind so loud! But I had to get up early for the bus, for my English test. (I concored the bus card, if you were wondering) Then the English test. She asked me if I wanted the test everyone else was taking with finnish to english putting verbs in the right form, or the english to english test... yum give me the hard one, I've got nothing to lose!!! And really, english to english, what would I gain from that? Well I think I did well, I knew all the words, and only left maybe one or two of the questions blank, she told me I could use the dictionary, but I wanted to prove to myself I didn't need one. Then we waited for the bus. Sanni, Laura, Henriikka, and I, well Piia and Jonna were there too, but they left after lunch cause Jonna has a mopoauto and Piia lives like a kilometer from the school. FREE LUNCH WOOO!!! Then we chill, went on the computer, took crazy pictures... yah know. Laura is on the same bus as me now! Coolio! Puhallica today, the conductor wasn't in the best mood, but whatever. Juha and Suesanna picked me up after, but I'm still gettin used to the new cars so I thought it was them, opened the door and said 'is this the right car?' It was, luckily or else the people would have been so confused cause I said that in English as well as a random foreign chick climbing in their car : P.

torstai:
Hyvää Kiitos päivää!!! Yeah it's thanks giving, I decorated a little bit, then got ready for a rehersal for this thing I'm playing at the church on Sunday. That went well, I'm excited and nervous. After that we came home for our Thanksgiving meal and dessert! Yummy icecream and fudge cake!!! I realize now that everybody cuts their icecream weird. Ice cream comes in a rectangle carton right, so then they opent that compleatly open so its a rectangel piece of ice cream on the flat carton cardboard. Then they cut it into squares or rectangles and put those pieces in a bowl and you scoop out the icecream from the bowl piece by piece. Then after dinner and dessert I waited on skype for my family to call. It was awsome to see everyone! And all my animals! The baby kittys got sooo big, and Charliee looks goregous as always! They said that Charliee could hear me and knew it was me. Good cause I'd hate for her to forget who I was! It was cool introducing everyone to my host family, and vise-versa! Then we hung up and sauna tonight! yeah!!!

perjantai:
Today I got up earlish cause Markku was picking me up at 9 to show me what he dose at his job. He works for a timber, paper manufacture and is in charge of finding trees to cut down and buy. We first checked a place that trees were already cut down and we had to mark which trees were for the owner of the land to keep. I got to spray paint, MO (stands for forest owner) on a bunch of stacks of logs! Then we went to another place were a big machine was piling the trees up into bunches. Then we oreinteared. Markku had just worked a plan with a forest owner to cut those trees down, so we got to use maps and ribbon to mark the area so the machines would know where to cut, and where to say away from. It was very important to mark in the right places cause in some spots we were on the property line so if we went over and the neighbors tree was cut down, bad things could/probably would happen! But we did it right! So then we stopped for lunch (makkara) and then we watched another big machine cut down trees! It was soooo cool and super fast, Markku said that this operater just started on this new piece of equipment or it would go even faster, but I cant imagine how fast it would go cause it was so fast! This claw-like thing gripped the tree at the bottom, then cut it, then it fell down with the claw still attached. Then the tree slipped through the claw thing like corn on the cob kinda, getting rid of all the branches and cutting the log into similar sizes, maybe 20-25 ish (not quite sure we weren't that close) or more foot long pieces. They wer thinning the forest, taking 1 out of every 3 trees, mostly the sick and/or curvy trees so the healthy, straight trees can get even bigger. Markku talked about when they do clear cut, they leave a couple treas for the sceanary, and then some really tall stumps (over 5 meters) for the wood peckers. Then they have to re-plant it with-in a year with 2000 trees in every square... kilometer I think... I think that's what it is... or else you go to jail! Then we found another big machine (smaller than the last but still big) Markku told him we were just watching, and he was just showing me the job. This machine picked out the small trees (sometimes 5 at a time) and cut them up. They were going for fire wood/pellets I think after they dryed. The as we were leaving the guy asked if I wanted to try to drive it, Markku said no, probably for the best, I probably would have cut the entire forest down my accident and then I'd have to find 2000 new trees to plant there or I'd be put in Finnish prison, which is the toughest prison ever (I'm not so sure about that but...) Still not the best thing to have on my rap sheet. I got back home around 2:00, soooo tired. Then I had a concert to go to at the Tampereen Talo (Tampere's music house) we had signed up for it a while ago with Puhalica, and that place was sooo beautiful!!! And the music was awsome too, my horn teacher was playing in it too! He's awsome. So that was a long day, a good day, but long!

lauantai:
Today we headed out around 10 for shopping, there was a craft place in Ikkalinen that we looked through, so many awesome home made things! Wow! Then we went to Elo, Roosa and I shopped for jewlrey and clothes, I found an amazing sales rack in one store. I found these great (green) flats on sale for 5€ and really cool bottoms to a bathing suite for 50 cents! So heck yes! I go to pay for them (no tax I'll be paying 5.50€) And the lady says 1.65€... what? Okay, not gonna argue, turns out that sales rack was also all 70% off! SCORE!!! When we finally got home Roosa and I went to Roosa's friends house, it was her brother's birthday so the family was over, they all had so many questions to ask. Then Roosa, Johanna, and I played Cluedo (Clue) Johanna won, I was close though! It was the Yellow guy (me) in the biljardi huone with the revolveri. Then there was awsome cake, finnish pitza, and lots of candy. And we played in the snow and then Juha and Suesanna picked us up.

sunnuntai:
I had to wake up way too early! Had to be at the church 8:45 for warm up. Church started at 10:00, The playing thing went really well, and I really like singing hyms in finnish! Then after we went to the other church in Kyröskoski and had riisi purro (rice pudding) and then we played a bit more. So then I was done, It was a little after one o'clock. And they said I could stay for coffee and some more people talking, but I'm a busy girl, and texted for a ride home. haha. Then we went ice skating!!! YEAH I love ice skating!!! My skates were a bit tight, but I just ignored that. And I've never skated on such a big lake before! At one point the ice cracked (like a half mile long) and it made the coolest sound! And I was right by the shore so I didn't get freaked out. Cause ice settles... Then after hot cocoa and getting warm again we baked cookies! First ginger bread cookies, then I did chocolate chip cookies... yummy!!! Then very long skyping with Shelby, then the family. Karah's gonna come soon! Then I said I have to go to bed, and we hung up. I missed who won Big Brother, but they recoreded it for me and I'll watch it tomorow, Eetu is my favorite but I don't think he'll win cause I think the Finns like the other people better...

Viikko Viisitoista

maanantai:
Today was a crazy and long day, but a good day! Although we didn't have school today, I woke up early because Sanni had to take the only morning bus from her house to Hämeenkyrö. So we hung out at my house until Jonna's mom was taking us to Laura's house around 11:00 for her birthday party. I made Salmiakki rice crispy treats cause I couldn't find the regular marshmellows, at first (I found them later, but already had these so... plus I was curious what these American treats would taste like with a Finnish twist to them. (They were just okay, but I think that's because I used way to much butter and marshmellows) We then went to Laura's house, had awsome cake that Sanni made, pizza that she made too. Then played some a game (sorta like the crinkled paper game but without the crinkled paper) that was fun, and I got to use a lot of my finnish! Then we watched The Grudge 3, it was freaky!!! I'd seen the first two Grudges and the second one was really bad, so I figured that the 3rd one would be really bad too... well it wasn't!!! (or maybe it was just because I underestimated it) After that we headed to the bus stop for Tampere. We shopped and ate at HESBURGER!!! The lady taking my order immediatly knew I wasn't Finnish so she switched to English... ugh. I don't get it, I was with all these Finns... what ever, then we shopped some more, there was a store in one mall named ''Your Face'' I thought that was hilarious, next time I'm taking a picture! Took the 8:30 bus back to Hämeenkyrö, So by the time I got off the bus and walked home it was 9:15 and I was really wet. But other than that it was a really great day!

tiistai:

I woke up late cause I didn't have class till 10, I was so jelious of the cats!!! They were just sprawled out on couches... not worrying about getting to school on time or anything! Got my butt to school and did school things. After school Markku picked me up and we went to the bus station to get my bus card, because when I move, I'll be taking a bus to school! Later that day I went to a Rotary meeting, they talked to me about the News paper artical, they were upset that Rotary wasnt mentioned at all! I was too, cause in the interview I mentioned it over and over, I also mentioned all my families that I'll be staying with, a lot, cause I wanted them to be in the artical too. But nope. If I ever get another chance I'll find a way, maybe by asking for them to put a thank you in... Anyway, also they had me talk at the rotary dinner, and after they decided that they would take another rotary student next year, (they said it's cause I've been so good : P)

keskiviikko:

Today was mostly normal. After school I went to Tokmanni to pick up a picture frame, then headed to the local picture printing place to get a picture printed for the frame. I was going to give it to the Honkilahti's, It was a picture of all of us eatting dinner. I succefully understood the women in the shop, and came back in a half-hour to pick the pictures up (I printed one for me too) I like the shop, it reminded me of Kristy's only not produce, pictures, there was a husband and wife working, a dog, and i'm pretty sure the daughter too. Later was Puhallica, I got a ride with Eija, so that was nice. When Anssi came home that night he came with a box from America! Yeah!!!

torstai:

Snow today!!! It's funny cause in the morning, I thought to myself: should I wear my boots... nahh it's not gonna snow! Put my sneakers on and went outside, closed the door, THEN realized that it WAS snowing!!! But I didn't feel like going back to change my shoes. School was school, I gave my Bio presentation (in Finnish) I used the vocabulary of a 3 year old to tell about X-chromosome resessive gene disorders (like red-green color blindness, and hemophilia.) Then in psycology we had another presentation. I talked about the type of sleep disorder where you act out violent dreams, by kicking and moving you legs and arms... that was a group project, and my part was like a sentance long. Study hall, I rode my bike in the snow to Kyröskoski to get my bus card. When I got there, all I had to say was eilin (yesterday) and the lady gose 'bussi kortti?' bus card? 'yup' I said, and she handed it over and I was on my way back to school. Dance course was with the new teacher. It was more like arobic class, but I didn't mind. I felt like mom! On the ride home, I got off my bike the place that the last time I almost fell down the hill, cause... well I didn't want to fall! Soon there were these two little girls asking me something about my bike... I'm not really sure what. And after a couple words from me, the one girl gose ''I from Finland'' Busted! They caught me. But for about a kilometer we walked and talked. They were 9, didn't like school, liked snow cause you could slide in it, but wished this snow was the type you could make balls with... I told them about New York, my family, friends, things like that. Then we we different ways and I was back on my bike, and home.

perjantai:

Sleep in!!! I packed a bit cause tomorow I'm going to move. Did laundry and stuff. I wanted to get to school for lunch, but again my laundry wouldn't dry fast enough, and I had bottles to return. So I got there a bit late for lunch, but I sat down with them and broke out the reeses peanut butter cups i'd talked about, and the silly bands. That was pretty funny! After school, I hung out until Eija got home. There was some banquet that we would be going to tonight, but both of us had forgotten what time Anssi had said, so around 5:00 we just started playing dress-up. (We later found out it was at 7:00) I spent more time getting ready for this than I did for prom last year!!! But it was fun. And by the time we were finnished, we both looked fabulous! The banquet was a lot of fun. It was all older people, but I didn't mind. Amazing food!!! Eija and Anssi said it was Christmas food! Well I can't wait for that!!! Then there was a scotish-ish band that played (they were wearing kilts soo...) And after they were done, the broke out the karioki! Pushed away the tables and stated to dance. By the end there was just maybe 12 people. I sang ''You aint Nothing but a Hound Dog'' Haha and they all got up and danced, so funny! Then this one man talked to me. He had visited the Penn, New York, great lake area. He said he really likes America, all the people there are so friendly and ready to help. And he liked that when a school bus was stopped all the cars on the road had to stop, and he like that someplaces when school was in, they had a blinking sign that changed the speedlimit slower, and he also like Motells and how cheep they were for really nice rooms! These were just some of the things. We left around 2:30 and headed home, Antti was home from a hard week in the army. They had ''attacked'' this small town, then the towns people randomly found tear gas, so they all got tear gased! K so I found this extremly funny but that's cause I wasn't the one who got tear gassed!

lauantai:
After such a long night, I had to drag myself out of bed! But I had things to do! Anssi and I went to SMarket, then the reak market, had pancakes there, baught musta makkara, then the bakery. Once home we ate, I gave them the picture, then I finnished packing. I can't belive how much stuff I have, I don't even thing I bought all that much... maybe it's cause my packing was really bad, I didn't fold all that well... Anyway then we all just lounged in the living room waiting. My next host parents came, we loaded everything up I gave hugs and thank you's then we were on our way. After getting settled we went to the store to get taco stuff!!! Yummy! Sauna that night. And bed, I was so tired!

sunnuntai:
Woke up, tried to sleep in as long as possible but it didn't work too well, I was up 9:30. My sister Roosa was out still. Had breakfast, then hung out... lunch then they heard that there was a pikku joulu parade (little christmas) in Tampere! So we went to that. It was such a cute parade (little) smaller than the Castleton parade, but it was really cute and very nice! After some shopping and seeing joulupukki (santa) he gave us chocolate!!! yumm. We headed home for skyping with Sonja! That was awsome! She talked about the gallons size of milk! Thats one of the things I noticed too! haha Then I skyped with Shelby and Josh!!! That was sooo much fun! That was a good hour, hour and a half of my life extremly WELL spent!!! Then we stayed up late seeing who Finnland voted off Big Brother, it was Elisabet, one of my favorites, but I guess it's hard to choose when you don't really know what they are saying... Anyway school tomorow!!! Taking a bus, using my awsome bus card!!!

Viikko Neljätoista

maanantai:
3 months Suomessa! It's crazy that a 1/4 of a year had already gone by! SO FAST!!! The snow from last night lasted! Maybe we have about 5 cm... That was fun to ride my bike in! In art class we painted, that was a lot of fun! Then in my study hall I went to the music room where the music teacher told myself, and another student about this one music project course where you work on making music with computers and technology and recording. So that was really cool! When I got home from school, the gas man was there, well so was everyone else... After he got done working Anssi and him had coffee and sandwiches in the kitchen. I didn't get the feeling that they really knew each other, so maybe it's customary here to feed people after they work on your house... I'll have to look into that more!

tiistai:
My finnish lesson was really great, we looked up good websites for me to study with because he is going to be going to France for the whole month of December. My friends taught me the ''Itzy bitzy spider'' song! Their spider is on it's web. Which made me think... why is the English spider in a water spout? What did he think was going to happen... it is a WATER spout! That spider was just asking to be 'washed out', now the poor Finnish spider... he was just minding his own bussiness in his own web, and the rain came! Crazy English spider! The ride home wasn't a cake walk, for the first (and only time so far knock on wood) that I half-way wiped out in the snow. I caught myself so I never hit the ground, but my pride was hurt cause there was a decent amount of people around, a car driving by, and old lady on a rolatteri, and some other kids coming home from school. So I just jumpped back on, giggled, and got out of there fast! Another polka/chour band practice today! It was a lot of fun, and the other French hornist (a different one than last time) looked a lot like Angelina Joe Lee, only pregnant... and a really talented horn player!

keskiviikko:
It snowed last night, so there was even more snow on the way to school, in some places they hadn't snowed the walking/biking paths yet so I had to walk a bit. I also built a tiny snow man! I couldn't resist, the snow was perfect for it! My one friend Piia wasn't there today, she went to the doctors earliy that morning with stomach problems and she was sent to the Tampere hospital to have her appendix removed! Wow, but everything went okay. The whole school day was spent shoeless! I liked it so much, many people just wear their wool socks and take their shoes off as soon as they get in the school cause of the wetness. Anyway, it was a good time! Puhallica was really good, and the second half I woked with the a pianist on some of the things I'm going to play for a church mass in a couple weeks. That went really well! Oh also tonight I got my phone bill... ohhhhhh noooooo for the entire time I've been here.... my phone bill was 8.39€!!! haha big money!

torstai:
Today's like a friday cause there's no school tomorow!!! YEAH!!! The town saves money by ''laying off the teachers'' a couple days a year, so when the teachers are going to be at school, the kids definatly are either! The teacher's werent so happy about this, but the kids weren't complaining! My study hall I spent again in the music room working on the computer/music thing. I didn't say for tanssi kurssi cause I had my lesson. That went really well too! On the walk from Ismo's house to the bus stop it was snowing, and I had plenty of time so I made patterns in the snow, a foot-print trail that zigged and zagged, and loopy looped... That was a good time, and then I pasted a women walking her dog. I just giggled and walked staighter so she didn't think I was on something. Then after a while I couldn't help but looking back and I saw her just standing there looking at the trail I made, then she looked back at me, and I continued on my way...

perjantai:
Long, but great day! No school! But I didn't sleep in too much cause I had things to do! I went to the kirpputorri and found amazing boots! Really warm and only 5€ Juhani, Johanna, and Eija said that I found a treasure! Score! Then I rode to Tokamanni and K Supermarket. And back. That took a while! Then I waited for Juhani, and Johanna to come home because today was our family night, and they were coming in the daytime to start cooking. They came and we started on the gingerbread cookies. Johanna and I cut them into shapes and put them on the baking sheet, while Juhani worked on cutting heads off a couple angel shapes, and amputating some gingerbread men legs, and eatting them like a mad man. haha. Then Johanna took the extra dough left over and rolled some blue cheese in to it. Believe it or not, those tasted really good! Blue cheese here is called 'sininen homejuusto' which translates to 'blue mold-cheese' yumm the Finns tell it like it is! Next Antti came home, then Anssi, then Eija. We ate hamburgers, first hamburger in a long time, first hamburger EVER eatten with a fork and knife! I know they eat pizza with fork and knife but I thought 'No way can the eat burgers that way' but just to be sure, I ate my salad until everyone had started on their hamburger... guess what... fork and knife it was! I said 'wow this is my first hamburger with fork and knife' Johanna explained that sometimes they don't use forks with hamburgers, but since they had a glass of wine, they were keeping it classy (well that's my translation) haha, Then we had dessert, ice cream with a mint chocolate-covered warmed pear, and a liquorice cigar yummy! After dessert we played Trivial Pursuit (with teams cause of the whole language thing) I was on Johanna's team, Anssi and Antti, and Juhani and Eija. Johanna and I started strong, getting the first color triangle thingy, but that what the only one we got : P Antti and Anssi was in the lead the majority of the game. And it was a long game! around 12:30 (Anssi had already been in bed for a while) we started the quick fire round. And out of no where, Eija and Juhani answered maybe 4 questions in a row correctly getting all the colors before Antti could (and he only had one color left) he wasn't too happy about that, but Eija and Juhani were very pleased. Then we all crashed! Hyvää Yotä!

lauantai:
Today was a sleepy day, woke up late and everyone was still kinda tired from last night. Just hanging out. Then I headed off to the concert I was playing in. The concert was awesome! The mens choir did really well, and then a famous (Finnish famous) opera singer that was born in Hämeenkyrö came and sang too! He was amazing! They had intermission and coffee and cake were offered to everyone! It surprised me that one, it was free, and two, everyone got the same drink, coffee, and just one type of cake, glutin free or not. Now that I'm thinking about it, I haven't heard the word, ''decaf'' in a very long time... is there decaf coffee here? I don't know... I haven't seen any orange rings on coffee pots either... hmmm. Well after the second part of the consert was over, many people left. But many stayed because that's when the band I was in played all the dancing songs! It was the greatest thing I've ever seen! Waltz, Tango, Cha-cha, Swing, you name it, we played it, and they danced it! It was so much fun, they danced for a good 2 hours! And by the end there were only a couple of pairs left dancing. One pair that seemed like they were professional dancers, two pairs of older people that may have had too much to drink, just swaying back and forth holding onto eachother tight so they didn't fall, and then the rest of the ten pairs were really cute old couples! It was a great/long night again. I got back home around 10:30.

sunnuntai:
HYVÄÄ ISÄNPÄIVÄ!!! Today is Finnish father's day! After sleepping in (again) and lounging around for the morning, we headed off to Eija's father's house for a family get together. It was a full house! Eija's brother and his long time girl friend. Then Eija's sister, her husband, and their daughter and here husband and new baby, and Eija's sister's son and his new wife (the couple I went to their wedding the first night I met this family) Then Eija's mom and dad, and our whole family! We had food, I got another taste at moose meat! This time it was a cold cut of meat, and again it was really good. It had a simlar taste to roastbeef, but different! Then we had cake, and everyone just talked. Eija's mother told a bunch of really funny stories (in Finnish) but luckily they were translated to me! After many hours there, we headed back to the house, gave presents to Anssi, I made him a card, and then we said our ''So long for now's'' because the kids aren't coming back home next Friday and I'm moving Saturday. Busy weekend! And tomorow is a busy day too!

Viikko Kolmetoista

maanantai:
Begining of Novermber! And I remembered to say ''rabbit, rabbit, rabbit'' but I actually said ''pupu, pupu, pupu'' then I said ''rabbit, rabbit, rabbit'' So I'm not sure if it counts... I guess we will see at the end of the month! Eija lost her voice by the end of the day. We were hanging out and the phone rang, she wispered ''can you answer it?'' okay... I picked the phone up ''Honkilahti'' I said, it was Anssi, he asked if Eija was there... ''Yes, but she can't talk right now'' ''well why not?'' he asked '' Her voice... not work...'' (this was all in my broken finnish fyi) He finally understood and laughed ''I'll be home soon.'' ''oh-ko'' So that was that, The Big Bang Theory finally came to Finland! So I watched that...

tiistai:
Today was great. I sleep in, then headed to Anssi's office on my way to school cause I had to photo copy a few things. I got there, but he wasn't so I asked one of the women at the desk... I kept trying to say photocopier (valokopiokone) but I must have been saying it wronge. Finally we just walked around the office, and she pointed at all the different office suppies until we got to the photocopier. There! School was cool. Later that day was the first paractice for the new band I joined. Anssi took me to it. It was a bunch of old men, except for me, the other French hornist who was about 30, and another teen who is also in my Puhallica band. Then there were about 20 singers. The band had two accordions (I decided accordions are one of the coolest intruments, and I would be the coolest girl ever if I knew how to play it!) then two horn, a tuba, base, drums, trumpets... the works. It was three hours of playing, but it was traditional finnish music (polka) I enjoyed myself!!! And the music was really fun to play! I got back home late, like 9:00 then it was bed time!

keskiviikko:
Had a meeting with Markku (my rotary guide) today, we talked about my bus card for when I move. That will be exciting! I've never had a bussi kortti before!!! Eija made riisi puuro (during christmas time they call it joulu puuro) it's similar to rice pudding, but better! Really good! Then it was rain so Eija drove me to Puhallica and Anssi picked me up. Then we went to SMarket!
torstai:
Tanssi kurssi tänään! (dance class today!) We finally put the dance with all the different groups together and performed it! It's funny how I can still understand what's going on when I really only know about 40% of what is said (that says something about body language! and in dance class there's alot of body language!) On the way home I stopped at SMarket, cause the night before I saw there was ''Monsters vs. Alliens'' and ''Kung-Fu Panda'' together for 8€ and the best part is that you can choose the audio to be Finnish, Swedish, and English (same with the captions) so I think it'll really help with hearing and seeing the words! Then Eija and I watched Finnish Big Brother. It was cool cause they did an exchange with Slovenian Big Brother, so there was a Slobenian girl in the Finnish house. And to comunticate they had to speak English (cause mostly everyone in the entire world knows English) But it was also funny to watch because when they werent talking to her, they spoke Finnish, and... I watched her, cause I totally knew what she was feeling! haha

perjantai:
Today was a whirl wind! Woke up, today was my interview with the local paper, 10:00. Eija and Anssi both had things to do. So I watched Monsters vs. Aliens till the reporter got there. She had really good English!!! With a British accent, so up until she talked about being form the west coast of Finland, I wasn't sure she spoke Finnish, cause when she first came in I asked ''Mitä mene?'' (how's it going?) And she was like... ''What?'' haha okay... She asked me stuff like what my hobbies are, and what I find funny about Finland. Finns love to hear that they are really quite and reserved... I mean they are to a point, but they are as quite and reserved as you'd think because of what everyone says... I tried to convay that point... I'm not sure how well it got across. Language, what I miss, anything I don't like... those kinds of things. Then I went to school. Amazing chicken nuggets for lunch... I swear, they are sooooo good!!! The last class of the day and the teacher wasn't there. It was Finnish history. In history, he prints me out notes similar to what we are learning in class that day from Wikapedia... hehe, But it is accurate, and I enjoy learning about the history that I never even knew about! So I read the notes he had for me that day (the rest of the class was working on a worksheet) Then I left early cause I had to catch the 3:30 bus for my lesson. My lesson was great! And I thought it was gonna rain, but it held off, which was also great! Riding/waiting for the bus is getting to be old hat for me. And it finally sank in on the ride back home, that people don't ride buses to make friends (the sad truth) Antti came home tonight, but I didn't see him cause by the time I had gotten home he had left for the night. Eija and I watched the creepiest movie Cloverfield!!! So creepy, I had a scary dream I'm sure but I couldn't remember what it was about...

lauantai:
HELSINKI PÄIVÄ!!! Bounced out of bed 7:00 in the morning, can't say I've done that in a while! Anssi and I were out the door by 8 and picked up Juhani and his friend at the police academy. Then a two hour drive south and east to the capital of this country I've been residing in for a little less then three months now, (it will be three months the 8th.) We dropped the boys off at a ski expo thing, and then Anssi and I toured the city. I'd concider the city a city of tourist! Everywhere you looked people were looking around and taking pictures (us included in this catagory) It's hard to say weither it's always so touristy cause today was also Pyhäinpäivä (like All Saints' Day, a day to clean the cemetaries and honor your family members that have pasted) I got to see where the president lives and a bunch of government buildings, AND I saw one of those gaurd people who don't move!!! It was freaky, I didn't think it was a real person, but Anssi was like ''Yeah he's real, why would they have fake guards who couldn't do anything if something were to happen?'' True true. There was just so much that we did! We ate at an Italian resturant, road the ''Raitiovaunu'' street trolley (more like a tram but trolly is more fun to say!) lets see... then we toured some of the big churches... and then went to a art museum and looked at all the finnish art Anssi pointed out all his favorite pieces and taught me how to stand at a distance from the painting to really see it's beauty. After a long fun day we went to the ski expo too. It's was a cool place where you could enter to win trips and stuff. There were two different places where you could enter to win a trip to New York, so heck yes I entered!!! Haha fingers crossed!!! Then we headed back. We stopped at different grills in Tampere looking for some traditional turkish I think, meat cake thing that was introduced to Tampere when someone moved here from, I think Turkey but I'm not sure, anyway this person got a job at a resturant, and convinced the owner to sell this meat cakes and they were a big hit! And it was good! It was deep-fried so that might be another reason I liked it so much, first deep-fried thing I've had in a while!!! Anssi had a kuuma koira (hot dog) but it was nothing like an American hot dog... I want to try one of those soon cause it looked so good!!! So yeah... Wow 14 hours of touring can make a person tired! So I slept.

sunnuntai:
Today I acutally didn't sleep as late as I thought I would! After getting up it was a lazy day until we left for the new baby of the families ''Ristiäiset'' a Christening, here the babies are born, but not named right away (I'm told the parents do know what they are going to name the baby but keep it a secret) Then, around 2-3 months later they have the ristiäiset, and then everyone is told the baby's name! So that was a fun family affair. Lots of good food, and coffee (I've come to the conclusion that coffee is a major, major, major part of life in Finland) And it's not just that everyone is addicted to it and needs to get their fixes of it all the time, but it's a social thing. After the party was over the whole family squished into the car, all four of the 'kids' in the back seat (that was fun!) and dropped Johanna off at her appartment, then Juhani back to the police academy, then the rest of us headed back home. It started snowing on the way back! A lot!!! And I looked like this snow was gonna stick around for a while! We got home and we all just were hanging around when the phone rang, and even though they said that they couldn't call today, I knew by the sound of the ring that it was my New York family calling.

Viikko Kaksitoista

maanantai:
Today was my first day at school since two Thursdays ago... yeah... Anssi woke me up as usual, but because I had been sleeping in longer and longer as the mornings got shorter and shorter, it came as a huge shock to me when I had to wake up so early and in the pitch black (unlike two Thursdays ago when there was a decent amount of light/sun at 7:30 in the morning) I thought "Why is Anssi waking me up in the middle of the night?" yeah It was 7:30, I don't know if I'm stressing how crazy it was to me... but it was! But in the end it was nice going back to school. (Got there by the light of the stratigically placed street lights) by stratigically I really mean everywhere. Hurried home after school for another exciting adventure to Ylöjärvi! This time I decided I'd just wave at all the buses even if it might be the express bus that wont pick me up, cause it might be the right bus (cause there are any distinctions that I can see) so I don't want to miss ther right bus just cause I didn't want to wave and have it not stop for me (if that makes much since) ANYWAY so I wave to what I thought was the express bus, I was cause the bus driver just waved back and kept on driving (ha love it!) My lesson went really well and Ismo said that our lessons don't have to be just an hour long "cause if you're going to take a bus all the way here and back..." so I stayed much longer and that worked out really well cause then I didn't have to wait in the cold as long as I did the time before! And this time I pressed the stop button at the right place so it was only a few meters to my bike! Yeah mastered the bus route! haha

tiistai:
Sleep in a bit today, very nice! (cause Tuesdays = class dosn't start till 10ish) Pea soup for lunch!!! You wouldn't think it but it's one of my favorite dishes... it's like a pea purre of amazingness! In biology I was busy finding out everyone's birthday and favorite color, I mean that's related to the subject right?... Anyway I found out one of my friends Joona was born on Christmas! WOW LIKE JESUS!!! Then I went to the Rotary meeting. There was this women presenter today. She was from a food company and had a whole presentation about that, and at the end of the presentation she had a taste test thing. Cup A, B, C, and D were each filled with a different type/brand of... wait for it... beer! Yes I was tasting beer at the rotary meeting (who are the very people who made the rule about me not drinking) I just thought that was ironic... Anyway, so you had to rank the beers in order of what you liked the most, and you could try to match the cup with the kind of beer it was (she had the four types of beers that were in the test on the board) I didn't even try that, but 4 of the rotarians correctly matched them all! WOW now I'd call that talent!

keskiviikko:
MUSTA MAKKARA for lunch!!! Yeah this week has been an awesome lunch week so far! Nummi numi!!! And I guess other than Puhallica, it looking like midnight when I was going to school (which for some reason is reminding me of Michigan... hmmm not exactly sure why), I found out that there's a baby Hannah puppy dog at my house in New York! and the fact that I'm in Finland!, it was just a regular day today... wow that sounds funny... : just a regular day in Finland... yup same old Finland... oh yeah good ol' Finland... haha I could go on forever (except I really can't, which is why I stopped... I couldn't think of anymore and struggled to think up that last one) ... : P Okay then... TORSTAI!

torstai:
"Huomenna on perjantai!" (tomorow is Friday) that was the phrase of the day today. No matter where you go, kids in school like the weekends! Oh today I was late for class for the first time of the year! And I had to knock on the door and wait those couple terrifying seconds untill the teacher opened the door for me. I've noticed some teachers wait a little longer before they go open the door for a tardy student. But luckily I was just a tiny bit late for my Psycology class, the teacher there is super nice and didn't mind at all that I was a bit late. I know Mom and Dad you're wondering ''Why were you late Paige?'' Well I was talking to the music teacher, Johanna, about playing with her at somepoint, since the first day of school she's talked about accompaning me, I thought I had enought time to hand her the music and discuss a few points, but I forgot that she's a talkative Finn... so that's why I was late for class. : P

perjantai:
PERJANTAI!!! yeah! My all-time favorite day this period cause not dose it mean the weekend is so close I can smell it, but it also means I don't have to go to school until lunch or if I don't feel like a free lunch till after lunch, (but who wouldn't want a free lunch? I mean really) So I sleep in than ran some errans before heading into school for a free lunch. It was some beef slices in a sauce that you put ontop of rice. My friend Iina had told me about it Thursday, it's her favorite dish, but she couldn't really explain it so I just had to see for myself, only she said later that it wasn't the same today cause it was with rice and not potatoes... but it would have tasted great either way! I got home and just hung out, a chill day! I also stayed up late to watch Big Brother (I hadn't watched that in a while and I think I missed something cause there was a giant chicken walking around the house, and it'd randomly sit on people and pretend to 'peck' them... I'm not really sure who was inside but you don't need to know any finnish to know that it was funny!)

lauantai:
Another chill day, Antti was home and told me that the days are now 2 hours shorter... wow no wonder I'm so tired, and the hours that the sun is up, It's been cloudy so it still seems like it's dark! I went to the Kirputori today, just to see what's what. I came home with a sweet yellow jacket and an awesome belt with a big belt buckle! I've been wanting a belt with a rediculously big belt buckle for a while now, so finding one for 1.5€ was just iceing on the cake, I love that place! That night Eija and I watched a movie with Amanda Bines in it ''Lovewrecked'' It's weird cause it said it came out in 2005, so I was wondering why I had never even heard of it... but after watching it I understood, not one of her best works. I debaited about staying up till 1:30 in the morning to watch the scary Halloween movie that Eija said was super scary, but decided that I didn't feel like staying up until 3:30 just to watch the whole thing, and then who knows if I'd be able to get to sleep!

sunnuntai:
It was a good thing I didn't stay up that late last night cause today was a busy day, I was tired already from the lack of sun, and... and yeah that's all I got. Today was the day that Finland turns back their clocks an hour to save daylight. I thought that was tomorow, so I got up at what I thought was 9:30 only to be informed it was 8:30... ugh, anyway it was Halloween, so I put on my birthday tiarra (that thankfully I brought) Eija called me the princess of Halloween the entire day! I kept forgeting I had it on so I was like... why are people looking at me weird... I must be looking good today haha! And we went all over the place. First to a local man's house, he had asked about me playing with their band for an up coming concert. He talked about them playing old Finnish folk songs and I was hooked! I want to learn that stuff so badly! Later that day I found out there's a Rotary happening occuring on the same day so hopefully they will let me be excussed from that so I can take part in the folkyness! Then we went to Nokia to visit Mummu, and I learned why coffee is such an important thing in Finland (to keep you up when the sun is being lazy) Then Eija and I walked around Tampere while Anssi had a meeting, I think it was 6:00ish or something, compleatly dark, I kept forgetting how early it was and continued to be surprised at how many people where walking around! The city also had put up a bunch of decrative lights! I'm told they are light for a couple weeks now when it's so dark and dreary, then they turn off until CHRISTMAS time!!! They were really pretty! THEN, Anssi picked us up and we went to a hockey game! First hockey game in Finland! It wasn't a pro game, but it wasn't a not pro-game... Kalle (the groom of the wedding I went to) was playing, and his team won!!! Yeah! The best parts were when the players slamed up against the sides of the rink, sometimes really hard, Eija and I would just laugh, and than sometimes the players would just push eachother around, that was funny too. Oh and they drive Zambonies the same way here, couple times around the outside than down the middle. I always wondered why they didnt just keep going around and around, but now it makes since to me. It's suddenly clear.